New posts will henceforth be published at lucidfringe.blogspot.com , and all the old articles have been posted there too. One of the main reasons is allowing comments to be made - so if you want to respond to any of the old articles (or the forthcoming new ones), that's where you'll find them. I won't be updating this site further. Wish me a bon voyage! Meanwhile I wish YOU a happy 2011.

I have been re-entering a largely forgotten space in my life over the last few months, as I have been rapidly remembering and improving my French language skills (to the extent that I am now certified competent to guide French tourists around Cape Town). This is no mean feat, if I may blow my own trumpet a little, given that French is not one of the 11 official languages of ...Continue reading...

I love being proved right. I'm sure we all do, it's a very satisfying feeling. Which is exactly the opposite to what I'd feel if I religiously followed the diets of certain friends of mine. They are Raw Food Fans. And I like cooking and heating and baking and boiling and frying stuff into a delicious caramelly currified sludge. The Raw Food Fans say it's natural, and they produce sumptuous delights au naturelle with the assistance of air-drying hi-tech superfood gadgetry, using all our modern... Continue reading...

I have just been transported back to the hazy (literally, for many of us who were there) days of the Obz Fest back in the late 90s. You remember, the days when the joke was that Obz was the only bohemian district in the world to lack a bookshop, because everyone was too stoned to read anything. Well, the truth is that things have moved on rather a lot, of course, and while Obz itself has infamously gone "upmarket" and lost its edge, many of the ex-Obz people have moved to the False Bay coast.... Continue reading...

A quietly emerging discourse is taking shape in South Africa that centres more around class than race. The clichéd class society is, of course, the UK, where class and its transformations are endlessly discussed as if it is somehow a uniquely important aspect of British culture. I remember a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party, who happened to be a teacher, trying to persuade me that he was thoroughly, righteously working class, while a post office man... Continue reading...

Posted by Simric Yarrow on Saturday, August 21, 2010 In : Future Perfect

When I was a kid there used to be a TV show on the BBC (especially during the holidays) called "Why Don't You". The full name of the show was, in fact, "Why Don't You Just Switch Off Your Television Set And Go And Do Something Less Boring Instead?" Superb title, and usually (if I remember correctly) filled with things to do that were unfortunately far too interesting to switch off straight away. As an adult, realising the pernicious and vicious nature of the TV, I have been very happy not to ... Continue reading...

I love the feel of the redwoods' roots above Kirstenbosch or the hanging branches in Newlands Forest. My first trip around Cape Town, many years ago, took me down Newlands Avenue, lined as it is with largely European deciduous trees, a lush but somehow appropriate intrusion in Cape Town's wettest suburb. Of course, the European history of South Africa is not exactly paved with glory when it comes to, well, anything much, but with its forests this is particularly the case. The Dutch at the Cap... Continue reading...

A few weeks ago I wrote a spirited defence of my reasons for tending not to support British, or at least English, sports teams despite being born in England to English parents. Some recent conversations have had me contemplate my navel further on this subject, in particular in relation to the topic of “The Flag.”

Posted by Simric Yarrow on Wednesday, August 4, 2010 In : Future Perfect

I recently had the privilege of being part of a team leading a diverse group of boys towards themselves – towards being proud men any community would be proud of. Men, as the newspapers repeatedly mirror to us, have messed the world up. In recent years, some men have been seeking to rectify this situation, egged on by the poet and commentator Robert Bly’s classic, “Iron John,” a book which examines the archetypal principles of masculinity in the light of a previously little-known, but... Continue reading...

Here's a few poems that were published in last year's collection, available from me or from several of Cape Town's better bookshops. Afterwards is a little rationale I wrote at the time of the launch for why people should even consider buying a poetry book...

Sangoma Children

They’re at it againSangoma children drawing fiercelyFilled with the seasoning of purityQuivering with the giggling eruptionsOf tiny giants falling.

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The Author...

Simric Yarrow

Muizenberg, Cape Town

Writer, poet, teacher, green builder and activist, actor, singer-songwriter, trombonist, vuvuzelist. There is, of course, more to say. Born on a far pale island in the north Atlantic, but a New South African since 1996. Contact him direct on simric1@gmail.com